A mysterious Chinese kitchen

A mysterious Chinese kitchen have runned for 5 years in Grainger Market.

Have you ever noticed it?

On 27th of January,there was a fantastic Chinese New Year celebration on Grainger Market. Nanbei Chinese Dumplings, key participant of this celebration ,have upgraded their menu with some discounted items this month.

Although Chinese new year has just gone,Chinese dumping is still famous in Newcastle as a traditional Chinese food. That is the reason why this restaurant is so popular.

Why not come and try?

Selling Chinese dumplings and steamed buns, this is a restaurant runed by two sisters works from 9.30 a.m.to 5.30.p.m,Monday to Saturday. It is not so large but tidy enough.They  offered dumpling with various filling including pork, beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp, which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables. Their vegetable fillings include napa cabbage, carrot,mushroom and scrambled egg.

Chinese dumplings typically consist of a ground meat or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together. Steamed dumpling s are called ‘zheng jiao’ in China,which are traditionally served with a black vinegar and sesame oil dip. They can also be served with soup as well.

There are many ways to fold dumplings. Basically, steps for folding the skin includes putting a single pleat in the middle, putting multiple pleats along the edge, making a wavy edge like a pie crust, turning a pleated edge in toward the body resulting in a rounded edge, and putting both ends together resulting in a round shape. Different shapes of dumplings require different folding techniques.

In China, there is a folk storie explaining the origin of dumplings and its name.

Traditionally,  Chinese dumpling were thought to be invented during the era of the Eastern Han (AD 25–220) by Zhang Zhongjing who was a great practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese dumplings were originally referred to as ‘tender ears’ because they were used to treat frostbitten ears. Zhang Zhongjing was on his way home during wintertime, when he found many common people had frostbitten ears, because they did not have warm clothes and sufficient food. He treated these poor people by stewing lamb, black pepper, and some warming medicines in a pot, chopped them, and used them to fill small dough wrappers. He boiled these dumplings and gave them with the broth to his patients, until the coming of the Chinese New Year. In order to celebrate the New Year as well as recovering from frostbitten ears, people imitated Zhang’s recipe to make dumplings.

I’m looking forward to your comments !

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